Marfabout: Gardens in 2015

A home tour followed the Marfa design symposium, so of course, I turned that and my trip into a garden tour. No photos were allowed inside, though there were many great ideas – I compensated outside.

Musical pairing from the Eagles – James Dean, of course! (unsure that album cover was designed by local Boyd Elder, but you can find out and why I picked that song…hint: Giant)

Some galleries of many things I enjoyed; hang on, it’s a big post –

miles and miles of Texas from a porch

how I like to start a day

rough study sketch, the first ideas for late afternoon shade and minimal containers…a little thanks to Billy for his place

Now, off to the actual design symposium and my other wanderings, when I should have been designing…..no way.

I paid dearly for this later…but it might pay off even more later.

I forgot to capture the presentation of the first speaker, both architects now based in Tucson (Dust).

But the next speaker was a fellow Carlsbad native, even the same high school, is now a Brooklyn-based architect. Kelly Armendariz went into his works, many are commercial renovations in the Big Apple, but not to be left out was his own Marfa home in progress.

Serious Desert SW representation!

let the symposium and tour begin

someone gets miles of far out west TX and the Chihuahuan Desert

inspired by place – physical geography

the borderland to Colorado – cultural geography

his own home

his courtyard admired by Martina the architect and Cherie the architect, two happy El Pasoans

I’m glad the hard work of Tucson’s Brad Lancaster defining what should underpin all our work, continues to become mainstream in urban and landscape design. He’s the same smiling and fired-up / yet laid back guy who I shared ciabatta bread and vino at my old ABQ house years ago, in my other life.

And some homes on the tour…

Brad nailing down economic benefits

tour home – wrong trees, but cool rock house

not on the tour, except mine – appealing home of designer Marlys Tokerud, who I’ll collaborate with soon…I can see her Montana roots in this

Tour home – could this Soapberry thicket benefit from water harvesting?

The panel of architects, interior designers and engineer involved in a promising hotel being built by the railroad tracks in Marfa…the Hotel Saint George. A hotel actually stood on the same site decades ago.

Carlos Jimenez, Nunzio De Santis and Mary Alice Palmer, Larry Rickels

Mary Alice on the new 4 story hotel…I’m there once it opens

Nunzio on the variation of room layouts. plus the sunny community and bookseller spaces downstairs

giant Sapindus drummondii in front of retailers

famous boot-maker, cactus and desert grasses

the old Chilopsis linearis (R)

tour home – Kathy’s casita

out back, relaxed and appealing

Ratibida columnaris

nice, random grouping

Kathy’s own house not on the tour…fine ranch architecture, simple use of wildflowers and unified by mown native grasses

Inde/Jacobs gallery only on my tour…worth spending time inside…some very unique works

plant choices not my taste, but they work

negative space in back, then the finale of grasses and a clump of black pines

Carlos is someone I’ll collaborate with to a degree on an upcoming residence, while it turns out that Nunzio and Mary Alice are 2 of the 1200+ firm HKS whom I’m working with on health care projects in El Paso. A small world.

I’ll close out on parts of the symposium and my own tour related to being more bike and pedestrian-friendly…and upping the economic bar for any great place that’s proud of itself and its place. (pay attention El Paso and NM: no more wannabe, learn to be)

Gina Coffman is a west coast-based planner, landscape architect and cyclist…starting from the start

the new bike share prototype from Bike Marfa

and the bike stand out front of a fun project I’m working on, where we all decided the best place to park some of the shares

a small planting strip with native plants, some medicinal

nice arrangement being cultivated…

…by Freda, the nice woman working inside

Gina extolled home-grown places to walk, bike and linger – and not without tough plantings

next door to Marfa Public Radio…a contemporary take

I hope to post photos of the gardens from two years ago, at the last symposium, but the “day” job calls.

corner planting in the “cram-it” style…some *careful* pruning needed

one of the pocket parks in town

what do I spy?

happy Nolina nelsonii

part of a new project I was just awarded by a very interesting Houstonian

Opuntia lindheimeri…thinking how or if this might be pruned a touch

such character for he and his guests, soon

old Texas in a new way…a stately Pecan tree, grasses, yuccas

even more locals and near natives

yep!

See anything you like, or that could benefit from water harvesting and other best design practices?

6 Replies to “Marfabout: Gardens in 2015”

Thanks for another great post. Love seeing places like this. Texas is high on my must see list (mostly west Texas). Some amazing designs and ideas. I wish my pocket book could keep up with my tastes.

You’re welcome, it’s a unique town for good landscapes like Tucson is, but in different ways. I recommend going far to the E (the Lost Pines), then come back west, so you can see the change *and* the different towns, ecology.

I loved the mega-post. Each group of photos was practically a post in itself, so full of good views and food for thought. I like that Tucson seems to have its own share of bright folks (it’s closer!), and I love that last place with “locals and near natives.”

As much as I admire the stark, minimalist designs (the negative space with black pines, for example), there’s always a little voice in the back of my head asking, what does this do for the animal & plant life displaced by this project? I know, a real hippie/tree-hugger kind of thought, and my yard with its pavers and pots and crushed rock is as good an example as any of habitat destruction at its worst, I’m afraid!

Thanks for the great post!

You’re welcome, too much for 5 pics, so…! The symposium was a highlight, too. The Tucson folks & Brad do speak in SoCal, some areas use his ideas.

Minimalism – I think it’s not enough habitat. The next level of design can retain some minimal but still be maximal for the fauna and flora. That would rethink what “negative space” can be so it’s not too negative…for me, it was as hot as 1000′ lower El Paso in the evening, rock and adobe radiated heat until 10 pm. Hence my tiny sketch, w/ some passive water harvesting.

I really enjoyed the tour homes but what I’m finding fascinating as a prospect is that elevated tea house/ranch shack project you’ve been hinting at. A truly innovative cross-cultural idea seems to be revealing itself (sort of a reverse strip tease!) and I can’t wait to see more.

Thanks, and that new project with the entire property, the tea house it’s own part…wow! This must reflect travels between wet, green Houston to dry, open Marfa. I may have to post on the inside of the tea house… More to come on that project. Going out to start soon!

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